Where to start
Paying for school
Student loans, financial aid, and how much to borrow.
Here's where to start — a calculator to run the numbers, a plain-English guide, and a short lesson with a first move. Which lesson fits depends on where you are.
Add your balances and a strategy; see your debt-free date and total interest.
Open the toolGuideGuide to Student LoansFederal vs private, why a paused balance grows, and where student debt lands in the order of operations — pay it down or invest, decided by the rate.
Read the guideFor starting outI'm about to borrow for school.Borrow as little as you can — free money first, federal before private, total near your first-year pay — because the amount you sign for is the one number you can never change later.
Take the lessonA few years inI'm in school and my loans are growing.Know whether your loans are subsidized or unsubsidized, and pay the in-school interest on the unsubsidized ones so it never capitalizes onto your principal.
Take the lessonBuilding for othersThe aid office offered me a Parent PLUS loan.Treat Parent PLUS as the uncapped loan it is — exhaust your child's own aid first, borrow only what you can repay before retirement, and never put your own future up as collateral for a degree.
Take the lesson